Insulator cleaner
OwnerVenkata Rama Subba Rao Chundiinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention describes an insulator stack cleaner to remove dust and dirt from power line transmission insulators. The cleaner autonomously cleans an insulator stack. The cleaner has two cleaning cups that counter-rotate during cleaning. The cleaner moves along an insulator stack by opening one cleaning cup while the other cup is locked onto an insulator, then the cleaner's transitional motors somersault the open cup onto the next insulator in the stack, and the open cup subsequently closes around the next insulator. A rack and pinion mechanism rotates the closed cup around an insulator and a cam mechanism opens and closes the cup around an insulator. Bristles on the cleaning cups scrub the insulators. The cleaner can be installed onto an insulator stack by a drone.
Claims12
An apparatus for cleaning a power line insulator stack comprising
- two cleaning cups,
- wherein said cups are mounted on cup assemblies,
- wherein said cups are provided with cleaning means, and
- wherein each cup assembly comprises two identical halves adapted to be closed around an insulator,
- a connector between said cup assemblies,
- a means to rotate each cleaning cup around an insulator in said insulator stack,
- a means to open and close each cup assembly around said insulator,
- a means to move said cup assemblies along said insulator stack,
- a power supply,
- wherein said power supply provides the required energy for said means to rotate each cup, means to open and close each cup assembly, and means to move said cup assemblies, and
- a controller,
- wherein said controller coordinates the sequence of actions necessary to clean said insulator stack,
- wherein each cleaning cup comprises two half-cups, each cleaning cup having an hour-glass configuration adapted to simultaneously clean one surface of a first insulator and the adjacent surface of a second insulator directly abutting said first insulator.
An apparatus for cleaning a power line insulator stack comprising
- two cleaning cups,
- a means to rotate said cleaning cups around an insulator,
- wherein a cleaning cup has an hour-glass shape to simultaneously clean one surface of said insulator and another surface of a directly adjacent insulator,
- wherein each cleaning cup is made up of two mirror image half-cups along the vertical axis, said half-cups encircling said insulator for a cleaning or locked-on position,
- said half-cups each being mounted on an arm,
- said arms being mounted on
- a means to rotate said arms between said cleaning and a transitioning position,
- said means to rotate said arms being mounted on
- mounting plates, said plates being attached to
- a connector between said mounting plates with
- a means to rotate said plates,
- wherein said means to rotate said plates moves said apparatus along said insulator stack to clean all insulators,
- a power supply, and
- a controller to synchronize movement of said apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.